Esmerelda Snow
by chexmixbaby44
Summary: Esmerelda lived in the Capitol as the granddaughter of President Snow. When The Rebels overtake the Capitol, she is chosen to participate in the last, memorial Hunger Games. Will she survive?
1. Chapter 1

Chapter 1

It started with the 74th Hunger Games. Even though I usually hated every bit of the games (during the broadcasting I usually made excuses to leave, I "went to the bathroom" every ten minutes), I couldn't stop watching this one. I dyed my hair to red roots, yellow tips and orange in the middle, simulating fire. My friends and I couldn't stop making the three fingered sign (as we called it) even after we got in trouble. Then the victory tour. The guy IS cuter in person. Then the 75th Huger Games came to pass. I was enraged when granddad announced that old tributes would be competing again. But when her wedding dress turned into a mockingjay gown, my hair was black and white layered, black on top, white on the inside, like a mockingjay. The second they escaped the arena I knew we were gonna lose this war.

Now, I'm standing at the window, waiting for Katniss Everdeen and Peeta Mellark to overtake the Capitol. Am I mad? Absolutely not. It's about time. I'm tired of living with my creepy grandfather. He doesn't even try to hide the fact that he killed, like, a hundred thousand people before he became the president. He always smells like blood. And he infects the whole house with it. He tries to hide it with roses, but it doesn't work, it just makes his sent worse. And there's the fact that I'm _showered_ with Avoxes. I don't want them to slave for me. It only reminds that I'm related to _him._ I'm the daughter of Elymas Snow and Angelique Danoah, winner of the 60th Hunger Games (that's how she gt my dad's attention) and from District three. My name is Esmerelda, I'm fifteen-years-old, and I am the granddaughter of President Snow. My mom and dad are dead, and I have a suspicion on who killed them. I was sent to live with my grandfather, here. My grandmother lives in the attic and never comes out. I don't want to know why.

I focus back in on the scene below. There's a shield of children surrounding the house. I hate him, using innocence to protect himself. I feel guilty that I'm glad I'm not part of it though. I thought he would have loved putting me with them, since I'm a rebellious, disgraceful accident.

"You might want to move away from the window," he's behind me. I jump. "When they come, it will be forceful."

"I'm fine," I reply. He knows I hate it when he sneaks up on me.

He notices my hair for the millionth time, "Why in the world did you dye your hair like that?"

"Why not?" After getting annoyed with this question, I resorted to that answer.

He mutters something about damned mockingjays and walks out of the room. I smirk.

Then I notice a girl in the crowd of children. She is about my age and she has the flame hair that I had while the 74th Hunger Games was happening, red roots, yellow tips and orange in the middle. She is wearing the flaming mockingjay themed gloves I gave her for her birthday. She's Marigold Addison, my best friend. My eyes widen and in seconds I'm racing down the stairs. I make it outside and yell, "Mari!" just before being held back by some Peacekeepers.

"Ez!" she cried. "They- they took me and I-"

"I know, I know. I'll get you out of this." I turned, walked through the door and yelled, "Granddad!"

Just then a hovercraft appeared over the children. It dropped silver parachutes into the rows of kids, and then disappeared. They grabbed eagerly for the gifts held in the parachutes. A few seconds pass and they explode.

"Mari!" I screamed. I spot her, unconscious, I hope, skin red and burnt, cuts across her face.

The Peacekeepers start scrambling towards the children. More people appear, medics. _Rebel _medics. I'm suddenly afraid. What if they figure out that I'm Snow's granddaughter, mark me as a threat, and kill me. Then I remind myself that these are only medics.

"Help her," I find myself muttering, "help her please."

I'm blown backward, my body on fire. I'm unsure of what happened. All I'm focused on now is the pain. Everything's black.

* * *

**Author's Note: Okay, this is my first fan-fic so don't be mean with the reviews, pretty please! And if someone already won the 60th Hunger Games, I'm sorry! Chapter two will be up soon!**


	2. Chapter 2

Chapter 2

I woke up in my room. Was I dreaming? I prop myself up on my elbows. _Ow,_ no, it wasn't. I'm still in my old clothes, even though they have burn holes in them. My arms, foot, and head are bandaged up. I sit up again, ignoring the pain. I limp over to the window to see what's happening outside. There are no Peacekeepers outside, there are no citizens outside, there are rebels. They won. I wonder what happened to Mari, if the found grandmother, or if they killed him yet.

Someone walks in. He looks like a doctor.

"Feeling better?" he smiles.

"I guess," I shrug.

"You are Esmerelda Snow?" he asks. I cringe at my last name.

"Yeah."

"I like your hair," he says, trying to change the subject after my obvious disliking in my heritage.

I smile and nod. I sit, cross-legged, on my bed.

"So what happened after the explosions?" I ask.

"The Capitol fell that day," he answers. "President Coin rules now. There's a small amount of resistance, but it's being taken care of. And your grandfather is waiting for his execution."

He looked at me like I was gonna burst into tears or something.

"Have you heard anything about Marigold Addison? Hair that looks like fire, gloves with flaming mockingjays, looks sort of like a skinny monkey?" I ask.

He looks at me blankly. I take a shaky breath, "She was in the children shield."

He purses his lips and looks and me pityingly, "We lost most of the children there. None of the survivors were named Marigold, I'm sorry."

Now I feel like crying. Mari, my best friend, who was there for me when my parents were killed, listened when I ranted about granddad, and went along with my fire/mockingjay phase, she's just… gone.

"Should I, uh… go?" the doctor asks.

"Wait, can I go anywhere in the mantion?" I ask. I wanted to go to a place where I always go when I feel like this.

"Um, just don't get into any trouble," he must've been new. I'm not going to try anything, it just seemed like he was unsure.

I walked out of my room and through the halls, into the library. I love reading. But the books from this time period are outrageous. I prefer readings from the 21st and 22nd century. How did I get them? The Snow's are very touchy about their books. Before everything flooded, they packed as my books as they could carry (along with food and clothes and all that important stuff). There aren't many, but I must have read them all about a hundred times. There's one about what happens in the future (wrong, but close). There are a ton of "2012" books. They were obsessed with the end of the world. There are a few about child geniuses, super-humans, criminals. There's even some about talking squirrels (Those are probably my favorite because they're so quirky). I get on the ladder and push it to the side where the old books are. I grab a random book, hop off and start reading. Reading takes me away from my sad world and into another, awesome world. I'm engrossed by the pages I've read before, until I hear a noise.

I look up, hoping no one will yell at me. There's a girl, in the cabinet. She has brown hair, burnt skin and, from what I can see, gray eyes. Oh. My. Gosh. It's Katniss Everdeen. I flail, and almost faint from fan-girl-dom. I quickly put the book down and get out before I embarrass myself. I get to my room and want to call Mari. I can't. So, I shed a tear, change my clothes and lay on the bed, doing nothing. I lay there for a day. Someone walks in, it's that doctor again.

"I have two things to tell you," he announces. "One: today's the last day you can see your grandfather. And two:" he hesitates, "There's going to be a memorial Hunger Games using children related to the people who held the most power."

"Meaning?" I ask, afraid of the answer.

"Meaning, your name's in the Reaping, I'm sorry." There's a pause.

"I want to see granddad," I announce, totally contradicting what I wanted.

He nods and a few guards come in. They lead me to where he's being held. I barge in, swatting roses aside, yelling, "Why did you do this to me?" He looks at me in surprise. "First, Mari dies, and now, I'm going to have a chance in participating in a memorial Hunger Games! Why did you do this to me?"

"I didn't drop those bombs. And I'm not making you participate," he replies.

"No, but It's your actions that lead to all of this. If you weren't a power-hungry, murderous, freak this situation would be totally different! Why did you do this to me?"

With that, I break down. I _never_ cry in front of him. "Why couldn't you have put me in that damned human shield?"

"You're my heir. I couldn't risk losing you."

"I would have given my power to someone who knew how to rule a country _well_," I say. "All you care about is power; if you tried meeting the needs of people maybe, just maybe, people wouldn't have rebelled."

"Is this all you came for?" he asks.

"I wanted to see you again. Don't ask me why because I don't know."

"Why not?" he says, smiling his evil smile.

I glare at him, "Because you disgust me." I leave.

Later, I'm called to attend his execution. I put on one of my dresses and do my hair myself. Granddad used to offer to have some stylists do it for me, but I usually refused, like I did for almost everything Granddad offered me. I pinned my bangs back so there was a small bump of hair on my head. My dress matched my hair. I was a strapless black dress that was slit by my legs with white and yellow fabric underneath so my legs weren't showing. Of course, since this was the Capitol, the stylist that made this dress couldn't deal with the simplistic design of it, so sequence edged the black fabric. I put a gold armband around my upper-right arm, a black bracelet on my left, and a mockingjay ring (a gift from Mari) on my right middle finger. I waited for guards to come and bring me to the edge of the city circle, perfect view of where granddad would be. People start to take their places on the balcony. President Coin walks on, everyone cheers. I don't, not because I don't like her, but because I don't have enough joy left. Katniss Everdeen walks onto the stage, the crowd roars, I clap. Then they bring out Granddad. The crowd goes crazy. I glare at him as his evil eyes meet mine. They tie his hands behind a post. Katniss aims at his rose. My face has been unchanged throughout the ceremony. He starts coughing. That's normal; he has coughing fits all the time. But this time blood dribbles out of his mouth, not normal. I wait for Katniss to fire the arrow, but she aims at someplace else releases the string, and President Coin plunges to the ground. I gasp. Then I hear him laughing. I almost clasp my ears and fall to the ground. I've heard that laughter too many times during the night. The guards take Katniss from her place. They lift her up and over the crowd, who are now thrashing out at her. My guards lead me out of the scene. I catch one more glimpse of my grandfather, dead, blood still dripping from his mouth. No reaction. He disgusts me.


	3. Chapter 3

Chapter 3

I've spent the last three days in my room or in the library. The Reaping for the last Hunger Games was supposed to happen yesterday. They're waiting for Katniss's trial to be over. Today the doctor come in and told me her trial was over, and that the reaping would take place this afternoon and to get ready. I sigh as I lay on my bed, waiting. I brushed my hair out earlier, deciding to leave it to itself. I put on my blue short-sleeved dress, that's skirt looked like feathers. A few guards walk in. Without talking I get up and leave with them. They take me to the City Circle. They put me in a group of girls, some of them I recognize. Agatha Crane for example, I'm not sure why she's here, since her father was killed. I see Telly Templesmith. We used to have sleepovers when she was over for the Games. There's a group of guys across a walkway. I spot Balthazar Millea. His mother was one of Granddad's brainwashed politicians/supporters. You'd think I'd know more people but I don't usually socialize with these kids because they're spoiled brats. At least, that's what I think they are. There are two glass balls on the balcony, one for girls and the other for boys. I remember all the times I had seen this on TV. Terrified children herded into city squares, waiting for their name to be called, bringing their almost certain death to them. There are about one hundred kids here. Telly approaches me.

"Hi, Esmerelda," she says. She looks nervous.

"Hey, Telly," I reply trying to smile.

The thirteen-year-old tries to smile back.

"Don't be scared, they-" I want to say won't pick you, but there's a very good chance they will. I let the sentence fade out of my mouth.

She starts crying and hugs me. I try to comfort her as I look around us. Along the perimeter, there are people lining up, whether they're family members or just observers, I don't recognize anyone of them. That's just like them, too scared to show up to support their children. Effie Trinket appears on the balcony.

"Hello, everyone," she beams, her light blue hair bouncing as she walked onto the stage. She's used to this.

I can't imagine what the country is thinking. Are they thinking about how good this is and how now, the people who brought this upon them will feel their pain? Or are they thinking about how this was why they rebelled, and that this will only bring another rebellion? I think too hard.

"This reaping is a little different than the others. I will choose one girl and one boy, and those will be partners. That pattern will keep going until all twenty-four are chosen. Okay," she claps her hands, "let's start." She grabs a piece of paper from the girls' ball and reads off a name I don't recognize. It goes on until she goes to the fifth pair, "Telly Templesmith."

Telly sobs.

"It's okay," I whisper, even though I know it's not. "Just go up there and everything will be fine."

She does what I tell her. Effie grabs for the next boys name. Telly is pair with a small sixteen-year-old. It goes on for a few more rounds. She called Agatha and Balthazar as a pair.

"Alright," Effie says, "This is the last pair."

I might not get chosen. My stomach twists. Effie grabs the piece of paper. "Esmerelda Snow."

I nod. _Of course,_ I think. That's my luck for you. I walk up to the stage. I wait for Effie to call up my partner. "Mercury Famine."

Never heard of him. A boy a year older than me walks out of the crowd. He has light brown, shaggy hair. He has tan skin that indicates he spends a lot of time outside. He has green eyes a little lighter than mine. When he gets on the stage he shakes my hand.

"These are our brave tributes for the last Hunger Games!" Effie says.

I face the crowd. We are all rushed off the stage and into separate rooms. This is when the tributes would say goodbye to their families and friends. My family is dead, and my friends are dead. I have no one. I twirl a string in between my fingers and wait. Someone comes in. It's a guard.

"No one came to say good bye, I'm sorry," he says.

"Don't be," I smile. "There's no one left to say good bye to, anyway."


	4. Chapter 4

Chapter 4

I'm immediately rushed to the Remake Center. My prep team, a woman with medium- length, straight, silver hair, eyebrows, eyelashes, and eyes, Rhoda, a man with green, orange, gold, purple and blue tattoos all over his bald head, Jupiter, and a woman with long, rainbow colored hair, long, rainbow finger-nails, and a stretched out face, Merimee, remove any stray hairs that might have grown over the time of my last waxing. Now I'm waiting for my stylist to arrive. Her name is Tigris. I'm pretty sure she was a stylist in earlier games, but grandad ended up firing her. I play with strands of my hair as I wait, remembering everything that happened in the past two years. Replaying things in my head. Tigris enters. I know why grandad fired her. It's not that she's a bad person, she probably is a nice person. Her skin is tighten and tatooed with tiger stripes. She has a falt nose and whiskers. This is the kind of people I like to avoid while walking through the Capitol streets.

"Hello, Esmerelda," she sighs. "Let me spitball our idea for you and your partner. The first thought I had when I heard your name, was emeralds, And when I think of Mercury I think of a red planet. And since we don't have limitations to districts this year, I was thinking, jewels. Yours, the emerald and Mercury's the garnet. Green and red united, by a pearl glove. Oh, it's going to be so grand!"

She claps her hands at her idea. I shrug, "Okay."

She brings the prep team in, and they all start dressing me in a green, strapless dress. The neckline is made up of two squares with their corners pointing up. Its skirt is puffed out and has jewels on it. They fit me with a large belt around my waist made entirely out of (artificial) emeralds. They put an emerald necklace around my neck. For the last touch they put green gloves on my hands that go up to my elbow, but on my right the hand for the glove is pearly white. Jupiter pins one side of my bags to the side of my head with an emerald clip. Rhoda and Merimee do my makeup, green eye shadow, a little bit of eye liner, three green eyelash extensions on the edge of each eye, and greenish-blue lipstick.

"There," Tigris says as she steps back and admires me. "Beautiful."

The prep team nods in agreement.

"Well," Tigris clasps her hands, "let's go get ready."

I'm taken to the bottom of the Remake Center, where all the tributes are preparing for the opening ceremony. There, I finally get to meet Mercury. He's wearing a red jacket with clear, gleaming, jewel-shaped accents. Underneath, he's wearing a dark red shirt and red pants. His hair is temporarily streaked with red. On his left hand, is a pearly white glove.

He shakes my hand. "Hi, I'm sorry we never really got meet before this."

"It's okay," I reply. "So, uh, I don't really recognize you. Who's your parent?"

"My dad was the Head Peacekeeper of District Eleven."

"Oh, was the journey long?" I ask, "From District Eleven, I mean. I've never been outside the capitol."

"Well, it is, but I live in the Capitol with my mother. And you're President Snow's granddaughter?"

"Yep," I reply, keeping this part of the conversation short.

We load into the chariot.

"Should we hold hands?" he jokes.

I glare at him.

"What?" He says, "I'm not allowed to joke?"

The opening music begins. The doors slide open. On the streets are probably thousands of people waited for us to come. The first pair goes out into the street, then the next and the next and the next. I recognize Telly in the fifth chariot. She's wearing a deep blue gown that flows out of their chariot. Her partner's tuxedo matches. Soon, we are on our way through the streets. I place my right hand on the chariot, balancing myself, and with the other hand I wave at the crowd and smile with all the energy and joy I can muster. I only hope my smile isn't grotesque. Suddenly, I feel a touch on my right hand. I look. Mercury is really trying to hold my hand. I can't reject him in front of the audience. So, I smile, wave, and pretend his hand isn't clasping around mine.

At the end of this ride, we get to meet our mentor, an old tribute that has volunteered to help with these games. The ride seems to last longer than I'd hoped for. When we arrive at the Training Center, I can't believe who's waiting for us.


	5. Chapter 5

**Okay, sorry for the long wait. I have been on two vacations in a row. I was gonna work on it during those vacations when I had freetime, but one of my friends spiled milk on my computer while I was showing him my youtube channel (juinleeopePro, I'm the curly-haired chick) and fried the motherboard of my old computer. So during the five days at home my baby was in a shop waiting to be fixed. Then I had to go to Oregon for a family reunion. That was last week. Now I have my dad's old laptop. Yay! I also have somewhat of a job, and school starts next week. So consider this a treasure, you might not get another one soon. :) Reveiw please, no flames, though. Love you guys!**

* * *

Chapter 5

Every little bit of joy I left behind when I was chosen for these games comes rushing back to me. I wait until we are clear from the crowd and squeeze all that happiness out in a cry: "Oh my gosh! It's Peeta freaking Mellark!"

Then everyone starts staring at me. I almost shrink down inside my chariot. I can hear that familiar laugh of the guy I watched on TV. He and Mercury are both laughing. I hit Mercury and say defensively, "This is the happiest moment I've had since I heard about the games, don't ruin it for me."

Mercury and I hop out of the chariot.

"So you're a fan?" Peeta asks.

"Yes," I say, shaking his hand and blushing. "My friend, Mari, and I may have been a little too obsessed about you and Katniss. But, hey we're from the capitol. We're weird like that." I'm surprised that my humor is back all of a sudden. Jeez, what fan-girldom and do for a girl! "I'm Esmerelda, by the way."

"Nice to meet you," he says.

As he turns to Mercury, I slightly swoon behind his back.

"I'm Mercury Famine," he says. "It's an honor to meet you."

"It's an honor to meet you," Peeta replies. "Now, how about you guys go get changed and we'll talk at dinner."

One thing I liked about him (besides the obvious), he didn't ask who my relative was that made me a part of these games. He might have known, but I appreciate him not bringing it up.

When I make it to my room, I find a way to wash all the makeup off (except the eye lash extensions, I like those). I gently remove each piece of clothing, thinking that they might want to save the outfit. I take the clip out of my hair and place it on top of the neat pile of clothing. I change into a loose yellow tank top and some jeans. I don't feel like wearing shoes, since I had just been wearing heals (I hate heals), so I go to dinner without them.

When I get there, Peeta and Tigris are talking, and Jupiter, Rhoda, Merimee, and Mercury's prep team are chatting. I sit down shyly, across from Peeta.

Tigris takes a break from her conversation with Peeta, "Do you need help getting rid of those eye lash extensions?"

"Oh, no," I reply, brushing the tips of my eye lashes. "I love them."

Ten minutes after the food arrives, Mercury shows up, his neat brown hair now tinted with red and shaggy. He's wearing his dark red shirt and some khaki shorts.

"Hello, everyone," he says as he sits down and grabs some food to put on his plate.

"Alright now that we're all here," Peeta says, "let's discuss training. Do any of you have any training in any form of weaponry?"

"Nope," I say immediately, embarrassing myself as always.

"Kinda, with a sword, but I'm not very good," Mercury puts in.

"Alright then, get a feel for all the weapons in there, find one you think will work for you, and train until you're at least good at using it. Then focus on survival skills. Surviving is the most important part of the game," Peeta instructs. "I would focus on fire, shelter, and disguise making."

"What if we don't find a weapon you like?" Mercury asks.

"Then try to work on one."

"What do we do about the other tributes?" I ask, thinking about Telly.

"Watch them closely. See who to make friends with and who to avoid. Alliances work in the games, just not for too long. If there are only three people out of your alliance still alive, it will be time to split up, so you don't end up killing each other," Peeta said, without a doubt in his voice.

My heart jumps at the word alliance. I can keep Telly safe, for a while.

"Well, it's probably time to get to sleep. See you guys tomorrow," Peeta says as he leaves the dining room.

"I think I'll go too." Mercury says.

"Yeah, me too," I say awkwardly, while getting up from my chair. I quickly go to my room and change from jeans to some athletic shorts. I lay in the big, fluffy, soft bed for at least a half an hour, but I'm too excited to sleep. I sit up on the bed, and look through the floor to ceiling window.

* * *

**Okay, not my best ending, but I wanted to save what was next for the next chapter. Again, Reveiw!**


	6. Chapter 6

Chapter 6

I find myself on the awakening on the floor, the sun rising outside of the window in front of me. Something taps on the door, making me jump on my feet.

"Up, up, up it's going to be a big, big, big day!" Effie calls from outside my door.

_How many tributes had to go through that?_ I think, trudging into the bathroom to take a quick shower.

I come out to see a new outfit on my bed. It is a jade green tank top with a black jacket and black cargo pants. A pair of black boots sits on the floor. I put the clothes on and go down to breakfast. Mercury is already at the table asking Peeta questions about the games.

"Find your strength. If you know you have great aim, get a bow. If you know you're strong, try throwing some weights. Don't rush yourself but try to get a hang of one weapon by tonight," Peeta explains.

"Okay, I'll try. I had a sling shot when I was ten. My friend and I used to shoot marshmallows at each other," Mercury says, smiling at his past.

"Marshmallows?" Peeta asks.

"They're edible cylinders of fluff and sugar. They usually put them in hot chocolate."

"I know what that is!" Peeta points out.

Mercury laughs as I sit down. Mercury's wearing pretty much what I'm wearing, but with red instead of green.

Peeta's smiling face gets more serious, like he's thinking of something awful. "How many tributes do you know, personally?"

Mercury looks at me, expecting me to answer first.

"Well," I start, "besides Mercury, I only really know one. Telly Templesmith, she and I hung out when she was over for the Hunger Games."

Peeta nods and gestures to Mercury.

"I know… five or six kids. There's Damien Ferrly, Regina Mashi, Quertly Robinson, Harrison Toro, Tiamy Gergin, and Rom Thread," Mercury says.

"Wow," Peeta says, thinking too much for words. "That must be hard, to know you're gonna kill people you're friends with."

Mercury shrugs, "I mean there's a good chance I could avoid them, maybe not get a chance to kill them. Then again, most of them are really competitive. Plus Tiamy would have any problem hurting me."

I give him a strange look.

"Ex-Girlfriend, I tried to let her down easy, she overreacted. It wasn't pretty. So, anyway, when do we start training?" he says, anxious to get off the subject.

"In a few minutes," Effie squeaks, entering the room in her clicking heels. "I suggest you start making your way down there."

"Remember," Peeta says, "Try to find a strength in a weapon, then focus on survival skills. Good luck."

Mercury and I make our way towards the elevator. We ride down in awkward silence. Eventually, we make it down to the Training center. Most of the Tributes are in the gym by now. There are weapons, obstacle courses, and little training stations. I take a shaky breath, my mind now taking in the full seriousness of this situation. I don't see Telly, so I guess she isn't finished with breakfast yet. Mercury does spot someone.

"Hey, Rom!" He shouts.

A kid around his age runs to him, "Hey, Mercury, what's up?" They give each other a man-hug.

The boy, Rom Thread, I'm guessing, is about a head taller than me, with an upturned nose and an almost bald head. They chat like they aren't going to kill each other in a few days.

Mercury walks over to me, "Rom, this is Esmerelda. Esmerelda, this is-"

"Romulus Thread Jr., son of District 12's last Head Peacekeeper, at your service," he says kissing my hand.

"Oh," I say, blushing, "hi."

"And I assume you're the President's granddaughter?" Romulus asks.

I try to smile and nod, while I take my hand from his grasp.

"Rom refuses to accept the fact that the Rebels truly won. He thinks we still have a chance and should fight back. I think that we've had enough war, and that if we start another one, the human race will cease to exist," Mercury pours out his political standings in front of me.

"Would not," Rom pushes mercury playfully, like a six-year-old child.

"Would so," Mercury says, pushing him back.

They repeat those motions until someone calls for Rom.

"That would be Regina, I have to go. See you later," he says, walking away.

"So you want him to be in an alliance with us?" I ask. I figure we should start planning for this early.

"No way," Mercury cringes, "I wouldn't trust that kid with my life, much less someone else's."

The last two tributes arrive, Telly and her partner. Telly sees me and runs to me. A woman, named Atala (I've seen her on TV!) starts telling us what the training schedule is. She finishes and I start finding a weapon to use.

* * *

**Author's note: Okay, to be honest, I've been working on a Percy Jackson fan-fic. (If you like that go check it out!) But that's why I haven't really updated that much. But I do have this chapter up! So it's okay! Please review, constructive critisism maybe? If not I like to be complimented. :)**


	7. Chapter 7

Chapter 7

When training starts, we all rush for the weapons. It's kind of pathetic. A bunch of kids, hair dyed, too much make up, and mostly no muscle, trying to hold up a sword correctly or point an arrow. I'm definitely a sorry sight with a bow. Mercury, on the other hand, picks up on the bow like a pro. I try throwing spears, I meet Rom at that station, he is good, I throw like a three-year-old. It is the same with throwing knives. I don't even try the weights, where Balthazar Millea and Agatha Crane are dominating. I originally didn't want to try the sword, but there wasn't much else to try. I call for a training partner to spar with.

"Go easy on me," I say, as I level the sword I picked out from the bunch.

The trainer nods, and charges immediately. I block his swing awkwardly and back away. I take a deep breath and focus. He charges again, but this time, I'm ready. I block both of his blows with too much ease than I expect. I kick him in the stomach, as a natural reflex. He staggers backward, smiles and says, "Good."

I charge this time. I swing once, he blocks it. Then, I fake a swing to the right and hit him with the dull side of my sword on his shoulder. He falls off the platform we're standing on and into the plush below.

"Again," he says, getting up from the foam, "but this time, I'm not going easy on you."

By the end of the day, I know I'm going to use my sword. When we finish, I go to my room and take a shower. Being dirty for a long time irks me. I should probably get over that soon. Then I go to dinner. Both Mercury and I arrive at the same time.

After we've eaten most of our meal, Peeta asks, "So, How'd training go?"

"It went well," I say. "I think I'm pretty talented with a sword."

"Pretty talented?" Mercury asks. "She was awesome. Her training partner only beat her once."

I shrug and blush. "You did a good job with that bow."

"Eh, I missed a few," Mercury says.

"Yeah, like three."

"That's good, both of you found weapons to use." Peeta says. "Just remember to focus on survival skills tomorrow. I suggest learning how to make a fire, tie a knot, and finding out what berries are good and bad."

We both nod. The next morning, I'm awakened by Effie's clicking heals. I freshen up and change into the clothes laid out on my bed. I eat breakfast with Peeta and Mercury and report to the Training center. I catch Mercury at the fire making station and decide that it's about time to talk about solidifying an alliance.

"Hi," I say sitting at the other end of his attempt at a fire.

"Hey, what's up?" he asks as I grab some wood to start trying to make a fire.

"So, about alliances, are we one?"

He nods, "I hope so."

"Okay," I say, "should we have anyone else?"

"Did you have someone in mind?"

"Well, she won't help much, but I just feel obligated to protect-"

"Telly Templesmith?" he asks, smirking.

"Yeah, if that's okay," I say.

"Sure, we could take a freeloader," he says, in the most serious tone.

I glare at him.

"I'm kidding," he says, smiling now.

"Anyway, do you know anyone we could trust for most of the Game?"

"Hm…" he ponders, going through a list of people in his head. "Not really. Maybe we'll just pick someone up along the way, and if not, the less people we become attached to the better, right?"

It's kind of a twisted way of thinking, but it's the only way you won't end up killing yourself before the games end. (That thought was also twisted.) Then, as if she knew we were talking about her, Telly approached me.

"Hi," she says, barely a whisper.

"Hey, Telly," I say, trying to smile. "We were just talking about you."

* * *

**Author's Note: Yay! we're getting closer to the games! Next chapter will be the private session with the Gamemakers then the next chapter will be the interviews and the night before the games. I'm excited! Are you? You are? Then review please!**


	8. Chapter 8

Chapter 8

Today is the day we get to show off our "skills." Our private sessions with the Gamemakers, where we go into the training center, alone, and do what we do best. I was sitting at the breakfast table, eating, way earlier than the others. Being nervous or excited makes me wake up early. I think of Christmas, when I'd get up at 4:30 am and jump on dad's bed to come down so we could open the presents before granddad got up.

About a half an hour after I arrived, Peeta comes to the table. He smiles at me. I swear I'm going to steal him from Katniss.

"Good morning," he says, his voice emitting the smile.

"Hey," I reply.

"How'd you sleep?" he asks with a yawn.

"Pretty okay, I mean I usually get up early when I'm nervous."

"About tonight?" he asks. I nod. "You'll do fine," he shrugs. "Maybe instead of doing well, you could pretend to do bad, making you look like not much of a threat. Then, at the Games, kick butt."

"You're devious," I say, surprised. "Besides they've already seen me beat the trainers a bunch of times, I don't think it will be too convincing."

"Right, right," he says, "I got that idea from my friend Johanna Mason."

"I remember her," I say, thinking of the games last year, and the replays they showed of her games.

Mercury walks up to the table, "Hey." He sits down and starts digging into his breakfast.

"Good morning," Peeta says. "So anyway, either way you decide to play it, you'll do great."

"Well, thanks for making me feel a little better I guess," I say, looking down at my food.

Peeta gives pretty much the same talk to Mercury. Then we go down to the Training center and train until lunch. That's when they start calling the tributes in for private sessions. As the rest are called, Mercury, Telly, and I go over our game plan for the Cornucopia.

"Telly," Mercury whispers, while still carrying a leader's tone, "When the horn sounds, ignore the Cornucopia entirely. Don't go near it. Just run behind you, we'll find you later. Esmerelda, you grab some packs, try to grab at least two of them. They might have enough provisions for all of us. If not, we can hope for some sponsors. After you're done, catch up to Telly. I'll take care of the weapons."

"Why can't I take care of the weapons?" I ask.

"Because, I run faster," he answered.

"Who told you that?" I say.

"I did," he sighs. "Just go with the plan okay?"

"But what if you die in there?" I ask, hating myself for bringing it up.

"You have provisions," he says with a shaky breath. "You can survive. And you'll find weapons later. Remember, weapons are a minority."

"Telly Templesmith," a robotic voice calls from the training gym.

"Good luck," I tell her. When she's gone, I turn to Mercury. "So why, really, can't I get the weapons."

"Because _you_ wanted to protect Telly. If we both went in there and died, she'd be alone. And if I was left with her, I might not take her as far as you would like," he explains.

"Wow, thanks for letting me trust you," I laugh.

"It's the truth," he says. "I can't take care of little kids for that long."

"She's thirteen!" I say defensively.

"That's pretty little," he says. I glare at him. He adds, "In my mind."

There's not much more to talk about, so we sit in silence until Mercury is called in. I wait impatiently. After about fifteen minutes, they call me in.

I get up and stroll into the gym. I look at the group of Gamemakers. I see Plutarch Heavensbee in the center of the bunch. I don't recognize anyone else though. They look at me and murmer to eachother.

I walk to the rack of swords. I chose the one I used when I was training. It is a slender sword, shorter than most, but works. There are no real people in the room with me, so I won't be able to show off as much. I face a dummy. I'm a few feet away from it. I charge towards it, and stab it's neck and kick it downward. I remove my sword from the foam dummy and engage the next. My sword twirls through the air, making whirling sounds in my ear. I cut off one's head, another's arms. I end up cutting one in half. It's kind of a blur. Since I was trying to focus on what angered me. Grandad, these games, confusion, Mari's death, the fact that I will probably die in the next week or two. At the end of the session, the dummies are nothing but slithers of foam and rubber. I sigh. They ask me to leave, not saying anything else. At dinner, Mercury and I tell Peeta what happened at the sessions.

"I didn't do anything too cool," says Mercury, practically shrugging his shoulders off. "I just lit a fire, played with a sling shot, shot some arrows, and did some flips and stuff. Did I tell you that me and Rom were into parkour?"

"Parkour?" I ask.

"It's running, but instead of stuff being in your way, you use that stuff to your advantage. You never lose momentum either. It's a really cool adrenaline rush," he says, slouching in his chair, remembering the good old days.

"So, what did you do, Esmerelda?" Peeta asks.

"I just busted up some dummies," I reply, shyly.

"How much?" Mercury raises his eyebrows.

"They were in shreds, I thought," I say.

Portia comes running into the dining room.

"They're announcing the scores!" she says, excitedly.

We all get up and croud around the screen. When I sit down on the couch, Mercury sits next to me. He casually puts his arm around my shoulders. I tense. I mean, it was probably meant to be a friendly gesture… right?

Ceasar Flickerman is on the screen, smiling. He announces the scoures for the first few tributes. Telly gets a five. Agatha Crane and Balthazar Millea get eights. Romulus gets a ten. We get to the last pair. Mercury's face apears on the screen, he got a nine.

"Nice!" I say, and high-five him.

My face is on the screen. An eight apears in front of me.

"Good job," Mercury punches my arm lightly.

I smile at him. He smiles back. We're looking into each other's eyes, and I can feel us leaning closer to each other. My eyes snap open. I get up and dust off the front of my pants.

"Well," I sigh, "might as well go to bed now. Since we have the interviews tomorrow."

With that I rush to bed, without looking back.

* * *

**So yeah, I know that there's a day where they train with thier mentor for the interviews, but I figure, since they're capitol kids, it'll come more naturally. So I'm skipping a day. haha I really want to get into the Games. It's gonna be fun! Please review! No flames though!**


	9. Chapter 9

**A/N: As you older readers of mine can see, I replaced Portia with Tigris, because well, Portia got killed. Yeah this is where we all look at eachother awkwardly like, ...whoops. Oh well, I fixed it**

* * *

Chapter 9

The next day, after lunch, we reported to the Remake Center. Tigris lays out my outfit for me. It's a long silky jade green dress. It's sleeveless with spaghetti-straps. My prep team puts a green cardigan on me. Its shoulders are square and puffed out like emeralds; the whole thing is covered in fake jewels that glitter when the light touches it. There's a pearl button connecting the two sides of the cardigan together. This simple outfit made me wonder, why they wanted me to come here so early, since the interviews started at seven, and it was probably half past noon. But then my prep team brought out a big case for makeup and a big case for hair. _Oh… that's why. _

They start working on my face. I end up with green eye shadow with glitter at the edge of my eye, some eye liner, a good eyebrow plucking so my eyebrows are little lines, and dark green lipstick. Then they start with my hair. They brush it all out and straighten it, removing the slight curve from the bottom of my hair, making it longer. They pull all of my hair to one side of my face, clipping it in place with a green clip/band thing. They hair spray it to make it stick even more. Then they add a sparkly green hair extension and make it fall on the other side of my face. All of this takes four hours. I have hair issues.

Next they adorn me with accessories, a belt encrusted with jewels, a necklace with one big emerald hanging from it, and a few bracelets. Then comes the shoes. They put me in clear 3 inch heels. The glass is tinted green and emeralds edge the shoe. Then they do touch ups, a little more hairspray, some more glitter on my eye, a bit more lip stick.

When they're done, Jupiter, Merimee, and Rhoda leave the room. It's just me and Tigris. She motions for me to stand up. I stand in front of the mirror. She circles me once, twice, than puts a hand on my shoulder.

"How does it feel?" she asks "To be so, in the nicest meaning possible, ignorant to the horrors of these games, then pushed head-first inside them?"

I'm caught off-guard. I don't like to talk about my real feelings most of the time. And it takes a while, for even Mari, to get me to talk. "Um… It's hard. My brain doesn't want to accept it. I guess, even though I know I'm probably going to die by the end of this week, my brain refuses to treat this as for real. Have you ever had that feeling? When you're in a crazy situation, and you know you're feeling a feeling, but your brain refuses to believe you're feeling that feeling." I sigh. Why am I so confusing? "I guess I'm still in the mindset that this is all a game. I've told myself that it's real and I'm going to die, but I don't know, it's really surreally scary."

"Do you know if you're ready?"

"Can anyone be ready for the Hunger Games?" The words slip out of my mouth.

She smiles, "I think you are."

A buzz goes through the room. It's the signal that the stylists should finish and send the tributes up to the stage. I meet Mercury and Peeta at the elevator. Mercury is dressed in a pitch black suit with red square jewels edging it. He wears a red shirt underneath and black gloves with his fingertips showing. His hair is gelled back and he might be wearing some eyeliner. I'm just glad it's the stylists who choose what we wear. Mercury comes to me.

"You look amazing," he says, putting his hands on my elbows.

"Thanks," I reply, pulling away. Doesn't he know that we'll just end up broken if we let ourselves go?

"You both look really good. They are going to love you," Peeta says.

Some stage managers start calling the tributes over to start lining us up. I'm the second to last; Mercury is behind me. At seven sharp, Caesar Flickerman, with his midnight blue suit and new orange hair comes out and warms up the audience with a few jokes before calling the first tribute up. Then the next tribute takes his turn. Soon, it's Telly's turn to take the stage. She starts out very shy, but by the end, when she's gotten comfortable, she's sweet and outgoing. People are going to love her. Her partner is dull and boring. Honestly I feel bad for the kid; he probably won't last very long, even if he survives the Cornucopia. A few more tributes go. Agatha and Balthazar were, like, made to be partners. They act the same, look the same, they might be related, you never know. Then Rom goes up. He's arrogant and slightly annoying, but to the point where you're laughing at it. Eventually, it's my turn to go up.

"Ladies and gentlemen, please welcome, Esmerelda Snow," Caesar introduces me.

I smile, laugh and wave as the people cheer.

"So, Esmerelda, can I ask how long it took to get your little cardigan on?" He raises his eyebrows, which looks kind of funny, considering they're orange.

"A good twenty minutes. We had to edge my arms around the sleeves and fix the jewels a lot." I say, not really thinking too much. Caesar laughs a little.

"What did you do when you found out that the famous Peeta Mellark was your mentor?" Caesar asks.

I start to blush, "Well, I kind screamed, 'Oh, my gosh! It's Peeta freaking Mellark!' but you know, I calmed down afterwards."

"Peeta freaking Mellark?"

"Yeah, my best friend and I used to be really big fans of his," I laugh.

"Well," he says, "Who's your best friend?"

I look down at my entangled hands for a second or two. "Her name was Marigold. She, uh, died before the Capitol was overtaken."

Caesar puts his hand on my shoulder, trying to comfort me.

"But it's just something to make me want to fight through this; it makes me want to try, for her."

"That's very touching," he says, "I wish she could see you now."

I smile. The buzzer goes off.

"Alright," he says, holding my hand up, as we stand together, "One more round of applause for Esmerelda Snow."

I bow and walk back to my spot.

"And now, give a warm welcome to our last tribute of the night, Mercury Famine!" Caesar announces.

Mercury gets up and waves to the crowd. He walks over to the seat next to Caesar. They shake hands.

"I'm a big fan, it's nice to meet you," Mercury laughs.

"Oh, no I'm a big fan myself," Caesar compliments. "So, a nine, can you tell me anything about that."

"Well, I guess I did a plethora of things that got me a nine. I'm not sure if I'm allowed to say exactly what happened," Mercury says, "but I know a few things from playing with my friends when I was a kid."

"Dare I ask what things?"

Mercury smiles slyly, "I'd rather keep those a secret." It makes me wonder if he was lying when he told us what he was doing during the sessions with the Game makers.

"So, is there a girl?" Caesar asks, hoping for some juicy results like last time he asked that.

"No, there were." I glance at Tiamy. Her face glows red with anger. "What I'm really hoping for is one last romance. But I don't think it'll happen."

"No?"

"Yeah, it's a dumb idea. And the girl I want probably is smart enough to know that too."

"I trust you'll make a wise decision," Caesar says, as the buzzer goes off. "And those are our tributes for the 76th Hunger Games! Have a good night and may the odds be ever in your favor!"


	10. Chapter 10

Chapter 10

That night they gave us a small dinner, and sent us straight to bed, saying that we had a "big, big, big day" tomorrow. Honestly, they have no idea. I tried to sleep, but my nerves almost made me throw up. I tossed and turned trying to find a position that was comfortable enough for me to sleep in. Nothing worked. I got up and ran my hand through my hair, while I looked out the window. I glanced at the clock next to my bed. 11:59. So close to tomorrow, so close to the games, so close to- 12:00 a.m. Happy birthday to me. Yeah, it's my birthday. What terrible timing right? All of a sudden, I feel like I've been trapped inside a small box, and I need to get out now. Almost automatically, I head out to the roof. The Capitol is beautiful from the top of the building. I go to the edge of the roof. I think about jumping, but then I remember what my granddad always laughed about, how the tributes can never escape their fate in the games because of a force field that recently got installed. By recently, I mean when I was three. So I stare at the glowing city for a few minutes. Then I hear, "Esmerelda?"

I turn around quickly. It's Mercury.

"Hey, Mercury," I say. "Can't sleep?"

"Not really," he replies, laughing half-heartedly. He stands beside me, and leans against the small wall, separating the roof from the air.

As I look at the city, I ask, "Do you think this is better… than the Capitol winning the war?"

"What do you mean?"

"This is the end of the Hunger Games, forever, hopefully. Do you think it's better for us to die, instead of more District children dying in the games that would have followed?"

"I guess it's better. I honestly don't want to die, but who does really? But if it means no one else gets killed in this horrible way, I think it's better," he replies.

I nod my head. There's a small pause. "So, about your last romance thing, who-"

"You," he interrupts. "I want to love you." For some reason, my heart flutters, and something, like hope, rises in my stomach. "But you're smart, so you know you shouldn't get attached to someone that way. Plus, I'm not the best person."

"Who is a really good person?" I ask. "We all do wrong things, so don't feel too bad."

He smiles. I smile back. Suddenly, He grabs my waist, pulls me close to him, and starts kissing me. Strangely, I kiss him back. I fall for him, forgetting that I might have to kill him.

* * *

**A/N: Eww, gushy romance. haha. Short chapter, I know, but the next thing is the first day of the games so I can't have those two things in the same chapter! That would be weird! Plus that was a good ending, I think... So about that 3s all around thing, I was trying to say hearts all around but the thing didn't post the "greater-than" sign. So that's what I was trying to say, for those of you who were wondering why I decided to give you 3s. Anyway, favorite and reveiw. It gets better and a little less cheesy, I hope. **


	11. Chapter 11

Chapter 11

In the catacombs, I'm pacing around, shaking my hands, and blabbering on about something _I'm_ not even following.

"Esmerelda," Tigris says impatiently, while I keep talking about how, eventually, I might kill myself by running into a tree. I see her tail flick. "Esmerelda," she says more sternly.

"Huh?" I say weakly.

"Calm down, you're not going to do well if you're talking all the time," she says, laughing only a little.

I start rambling again. "But that's just it what if I start talking to _no one_ in the middle of the night, and someone hears, and comes to kill me and I keep talking and he starts going insane, like me, I'm insane at this point-"

Tigris interrupts me, "Esmerelda, it's normal to be nervous. You're not going to go insane."

"But what about that one tribute-"

"_That's_ your problem. This isn't the other Hunger Games that came before you. This is the last Hunger Games. Don't live in past games. And you are not another tribute. You are Esmerelda Snow. Granddaughter of President Snow. Everyone's expecting you to live up to his name. You live down the reputation Snow has given that name."

"But what if I become a mass murderer just like that one-"

"No," she purrs sternly, "you are not just like that one tribute. You are like Esmerelda. Convince yourself!"

"But what if I can't," I whisper, my voice quivering.

"Don't focus on the past or the future, focus on what's happening now."

As if on cue, a box arrives. It's my outfit for the games. My _only _outfit. Wow. I'm really worried about that right now?

Tigris helps me get dressed in a black tank top with brown cargo pants made of material that looks like what those people who do research by lava wear, held up by a black belt. And then there's a matching jacket that I tie around my waist. I wear boots that have thick soles, and material like the pants and jacket. Plus black gloves with my fingertips showing. Tigris puts my hair up and a sloppy bun, getting the stray hairs out of my face. I hug her. I see her tail flick, but she hugs me back.

"You'll do great," she purrs.

I let go, still shaking. I go to the glass cylinder and step on. The glass surrounds me. I feel it closing in. I breathe in and out as the cylinder lifts me to the top. As I'm pushed into the area, I feel immediately warm. The light is dim, but not so bad as we can't see. I look at all the tributes. They're all here. Mercury's at the edge of the group, and Telly's around the middle, two spots right of me. Then I use as long as I can to get a feel of my surroundings. In front of me, it's mostly made of rock. The rock then changes, a little farther forward, to dirt that sprouts trees. Behind me, I see a pool of lava. Well, that puts a downer on my plan. I look at Mercury. He motions with his head to go behind him, the right of me. I look at Telly, and pass the message. As I hear the thirty second mark, and the countdown. I look at the supplies in the Cornucopia. I spot two bags right next to each other, hopefully, they're stocked with supplies. Then, at the fifteen second mark, I see the girl next to me start swaying back and forth. _What's she doing?_ I think nervously. To my horror, she falls off the pedestal. An explosion rocks the arena. I jump and lose my balance. I regain it, just before I fall. I feel blood, and… chunks on me. I almost lose my breakfast. They hold the countdown, and clean her up. Then restart at the thirty second mark. I'm shaking even more. The first death _before_ the games even started. I try to focus. "Ten, nine, eight, seven…"

I take a deep breath. What my vocal coach used to say, _In with the good, out with the bad._ "Three, two." A loud buzzer sounds. I race towards the two packs. I make it safely. Sling one each shoulder, and start racing towards the woods. Then I see a fist. I duck just in time. It's Balthazar Millea. I try to keep running, but he grabs onto my leg. I trip and fall. He laughs at me. I twist around and get up just before he stomps on my back. I punch him in the face, kick him in the gut and keep running. I pass one more bag, grab it, and run.

When I think I'm out of range of most of the tributes, I throw up. Stress, nerves, and getting people chunks will do that to you. Then, I start looking for Telly. The backpacks start weighing like bricks.

"Esmerelda," I hear.

I jump and turn toward the person. It's Telly.

"Oh, gosh, Telly," I drop the bags and hug her. "I'm glad you're safe." I take two bags. "Can you take the other one for me? Let's go find Mercury."

She grabs the third bag and follows me as I start looking through the woods. It was mostly made of pine trees. I look cautiously through the forest. No sign of Mercury. What if he died? _No, don't think that way,_ I think,_ He's just caught up in a battle or something._

We look around for a few more minutes. Then I say, "Hey, Telly, how about we stay here for about an hour, and then if Mercury doesn't show up, we go look at the Cornucopia."

She nods. We settle down by some trees. I begin to look through the bags. The first one contains a bottle of water, some bandages, and a few crackers. _Decent supplies for bag number one! _I think, thrying to keep my spirits up by making some wort of game by counting suplies. In the second bag, I find a sleeping bag, bags of crackers, some squashed berries, and a dart blower, complete with darts. _Pretty good supplies for bag number two!_ The last bag has two bottles of water, a sleeping bag, some iodine, some matches, beef strips, peanuts, and soap. _Oh my gosh soap! I can wash myself!_ I split up the supplies so we all have a good amount of supplies if we're separated. I get to keep the soap. I give the dart blower to Telly; she sticks it in her belt. After that's done, I keep small talk with Telly while I wait for a good hour. When I feel the time is right, I tell Telly we should go. We creep through the woods, until we walk up to the Cornucopia. Apparently, they haven't collected the bodies yet. I see one, with shaggy light brown hair, lean and strong form, a pack of arrows, and a bow, strapped to his back, and a sword still in his hand. Then I realize, it's Mercury.

* * *

**A/N: Oooo, cliffhanger. *spoiler censor* Oh, man, I forgot about that spoiler sensor thing. I guess you'll have to wait until, I post the next chapter. I'll try not to make it too long. *looks around suspiciously* Mwahaha... mwahahahahahahahahaha! What are you staring at? (It's quite late, and I'm quite excited and slap happy, so I'm very sorry for this weird A/N, review pwease!)**


	12. Chapter 12

**A/N: Okay, that wait was way longer than expected. I really do sound evil now, haha. A new book came out and I've been reading it and not been able to focus. And tommorrow's homecoming! weeeeeee! Anyway, here's chapter 12, finally. Becuase you know it's all that's been on your minds *sarcasm* And my medical knowledge is very small so, don't yell at me for getting an injury wrong or some thing, review! love you guys!**

* * *

Chapter 12

"Mercury!" I cry.

I rush up to his body and turn it over. I try to remember what to do when you think someone died. I put my finger under his nose. I think I might feel a little brush of air every five seconds, but it's faint. I try to find his pulse, but I have no idea where to find it. I recall some people putting two fingers on their neck. I try this. I feel a slight beating by his throat. Ooo! A pulse, the excitement almost makes me flail.

I shake his shoulders, "Mercury?" I don't stop until he gasps for air.

He starts coughing. "What happened?" he asks, disheveled and nervous.

"I'm not sure, Telly and I ran that way, while you got the weapons," I explain. "Do you remember?"

He looks at me strangely, like he has no idea what situation he's in. "Remember what?"

"Me, Telly, our alliance," I say, waiting for a reaction. He stares at me blankly. "Mercury, you're in the Hunger Games." _You and I kissed._

"Haha," he laughs nervously. "No, this is a joke isn't it?"

I gape at him. He _really _lost his memory. I can't last too long can it?

"There's _no_ way. I know the rebels won the war, but there's no way I'm _in_ the Hunger Games."

As if on cue, a knife flies past my eye, almost cutting off my nose. On instinct, Mercury pulls out the bow, aims an arrow, and shoots towards the source. It hits a girl with curly blonde hair and blue bangs. She coughs out blood, and falls to the ground.

"Yes, there is," I reply to Mercury.

"That's not real, it can't be."

"You know it could," I say, hoping he starts remembering things. He still looks confused. I sigh, "come on, we should get out of here before we become sitting ducks."

I give him a backpack, and he gives me the sword. After, we run from the Cornucopia. I make sure Mercury is following me. He is, probably thinking that he has no other choice. We keep moving in silence until dark.

"We should probably camp here for the night," I say, trying to take on the leader's role, since the other one is confused.

We stop between two tall trees. We are shaded by their pines, and the gap between them is just enough space for three people to sleep. I take a sleeping bag out of my bag, and lay it out. Telly takes one out for herself. I lay mine out for Mercury.

"This is your bed until it's time for your watch," I say.

"We're sharing a bed?" he asks.

"No," I correct him, "using resources."

They both settle down, while I stand, leaning against the tree. As I think about it, the responsibility just handed to me weighs on my shoulders. My eyebrows crease, thinking about our next move. I'm going to try to stay on the defensive, instead of attacking someone else. I don't want anyone to get killed. Even though at least two of us will die, most likely all three, but Mercury has a very good chance, if he starts to remember things.

Suddenly, music blasts from speakers. It's not the Capitol anthem, but then again, why would it be. It's probably the new anthem of Panem. I jump, almost slicing the tree I'm standing by in half. Mercury scrambles out of his sleeping bag as well. The faces of the fallen tributes show in the sky. There are thirteen dead, out of which, I recognize Telly's partner, and the girl Mercury shot.

"What happened at the Cornucopia?" I ask Mercury, who is now wide awake, hoping for answers.

"All I remember is being hit in the head," he replies.

"Do you think it might be a concussion?"

"No, I've had concussions before, I've forgotten more," he says. Then he sees the sad look on my face. "But the memories always come back."

I smile a little.

"So what happened between us, that made you care about me so much?" he asks. "I would have dropped myself a while ago, if I were you."

I want to tell him we kissed, but he'll probably just look at me weird and say I'm hallucinating. I try to think of something else. "We made a promise that we'd protect each other. We formed an alliance, I don't like to break those."

Telly stirred in her sleep.

"You should go to bed," I tell Mercury.

"No, I'll take watch, you go to bed." He gets up and dusts off his pants.

"No, I-"

"We promised to protect each other, right? We made an alliance?" he asks with such passion, I want to kiss him again. I'm falling so hard. Life sucks so much.

I nod. He takes my position on the tree as I crawl into the sleeping bag. I drift off into a light sleep.


	13. Chapter 13

Chapter 13

I wake to the sound of a cannon. I jump up and draw my weapon. No one is there. I relax a little. The sun is just slightly rising, making quiet light shine through the trees. I check to see if Telly and Mercury are alright. Telly is mumbling in her half-asleep/half-awake trance. Mercury has dosed off on the tree he was leaning on last night. I walk up to him and kick his legs from underneath him. He almost falls to the ground, but he catches himself on a rock.

"Good job keeping watch," I comment.

"What? Oh, sorry," Mercury says.

"Good morning," Telly sighs.

"Hey, kid." Mercury stretches his arms, showing off his tan muscles. "So, what are we gonna do today?"

"I think we should keep moving, until we find a solid hiding spot," I answer.

"Okay," Mercury says, as he starts packing up his bag.

I take out some crackers, and start on my way, saying, "breakfast time!"

Telly and Mercury follow me without objection. I hear crunching behind me so I guess they got a few crackers for themselves. I look back and smile, seeing them following me. After a while of walking through trees, Mercury comes up to me.

"Esmerelda, I actually, remembered something," he whispers.

"What?" I ask, too excitedly.

"You're my partner," he says, smiling. I almost glare at him. "I remember the reaping. We were the last couple chosen."

"Yeah," I reply, "Anything else?"

"Not too much."

"Oh," I sigh, _no kissing._ Funny, how all I think about is boys and clothes when I'm about to die.

We walk for a while, making small talk with each other, trying to suppress boredom, hunger, and soreness.

It starts to get dark when I suggest, "I think we should settle for the night."

Mercury and Telly start unpacking their sleeping bags. We drink some water, and eat some beef strips and a few berries for dinner. Then, they settle down to sleep while I prepare for watch. After a few hours, I hear the new anthem of Panem play and see one face of who I think was Quertly Robinson, one of Mercury's friends. After a while more, I hear a noise. There's a rustle in the trees. I look around. Every now and then I see something rustle in the pine needles. I draw my sword. Silver moon light is shining off the blade, making it look fierce. Then, something grabs my hand. I try to cry out and warn Mercury, but the person covers my mouth. My sword falls out of my hand. The person pins my arm at my side with his elbow and holds a knife to my throat. I try to struggle without getting my throat slit, but he's too strong. I think he's about to kill me when he asks, in a familiar voice, "Are you with Mercury? Nod your head if so."

I hesitantly nod my head. He lets me go.

I grab my sword, and scream, "Mercury,"

In a split second, Mercury is out of his sleeping bag, and aiming an arrow at the boy's head. Telly is up too, prepping her blow dart. I pick up my sword and point it at the boy.

"Mercury, you wouldn't shoot an arrow through your best friend would you," the boy says, slyly, while staying away from the moon light.

"Depends," Mercury retorts, almost lowering his bow, "Who is my best friend?"

"You wouldn't forget me, would you?" The boy steps out of the shadows. He has an upturned nose and almost bald head. He's covered in small scratches. He's smiling like an he's insane.

"Rom?" Mercury asks.

_Oh, boy,_ I think.

"I'd like to join your little alliance, for a while," he says alliance like someone would talk about ham on Christmas. "I figured that I can't make it to the end without some help." He smiles again. I get goose-bumps all down my arms. I don't like him.

"Let's talk about this first," I say. Before anyone else can say anything, I drag Mercury and Telly away from Rom.

With eyes glued on Rom, I ask, "What do you think, Mercury?"

"I don't know," he says, "I'm not sure he can be trusted."

"The fact that he attacked me proves that, but do you think he really needs help?" I ask "Or will he just drag us to the finish and then kill us off?"

"Look at him," Telly says.

I have been keeping an eye on him, making sure he doesn't sneak up on us and kill us or something. But I haven't been paying attention to what exactly he's been doing. He's eyeing our food hungrily, along with the rest of our supplies. Not like an evil hungry, but desperate. Does he really need our help?

I look at Mercury, "Do you think he needs us?"

Mercury nods, hesitantly.

"Okay, well, here's what we're going to do. Keep the supplies by your side, so he doesn't take any and run off, and let him keep only one spear, nothing else. I still don't trust him."

We approach Rom. "We decided to let you in, on a few conditions. You give us all your weapons but the spear, and we decide when you eat."

He sighs heavily, like he's not used to being told what to do. He nods. I unzip my backpack and give him a hand full of peanuts. He smiles and devours them like an animal. After he's done, he hands me his knife; I strap it to my belt. Mercury gives him his water bottle. Rom only takes a swig, somehow aware of the fact that we have only three half-full bottles of water. After, Telly and I get into our sleeping bags, while Mercury gets ready to take watch.

"I'll take watch," suggests Rom.

"No," I say. I lay my head down, making sure he knows that's the last word.

He lays his head right above mine. I almost don't sleep because I fear that spear he's holding will soon go through my heart.


	14. Chapter 14

Chapter 14

I wake up to find Mercury sitting at my feet, roasting something over some coals. It was light out, probably ten in the morning. Barely any smoke was coming from the smoldering coals, but still I'm worried. I sit up.

"What are you doing?" I ask.

"I shot some of these," he replies, showing me a squirrel type thing. "I thought I'd treat you guys."

_Uhg, why does he have to be so sweet about it?_ I think. "Well, thanks, but when's it gonna be done? We might be sending smoke signals to the other tributes," I make my voice higher, "'We're here! Come kill us now!'"

He waves his hand through some light smoke and shrugs, "It's not that much." He takes a knife and checks the inside of the animal, "It's all done anyway." He hands me the stick, then starts stomping out the coals, waking up the others.

"Happy third day alive!" I say, waving the meat.

"Wow," Rom marvels, "How'd you find that?"

"It surprised me in the middle of the night so I shot it," answers Mercury.

"Surprised?" I ask.

"…Yeah."

"You mean scared?"

"At least I shot it," Mercury mumbles.

I laugh as I cut up the meat and pass it to the others. After we're done eating we set off again. Mercury and I form a silent plan on how we handle our new ally. I lead with Telly by my side, while Rom walks behind me and Mercury walks behind him. That way, eyes are on everything, and everyone.

"Where are we going?" Rom asks.

"I'm trying to find water and shelter," I reply sighing, like it's obvious.

"When are we going to fight someone?" he asks impatiently.

"Our strategy is survival. Going on offense all the time will eventually get us killed."

"Unless you're good," Rom states.

I almost punch him, but I clench my fist, take a deep breath, and unclench. "Let's keep moving."

We walk for a while. Then, Telly spots something.

"Ez," she says, "there's a river!"

I look to where she's pointing, and I see crystal water trickling over rocks. On habit, I shake my water bottle, checking the amount of water inside. It's probably at its last few drops.

"Let's go," I say, while I recklessly start running toward the river.

While I reach it, I drop my bag and dive in. Telly's right behind me, along with Rom. Mercury, instead of just leaving his bag on the side of the river, starts taking his shirt off.

_Of course, _I think. He keeps reminding me how sweet he is, and how much he doesn't remember anything. _This has been the best few weeks ever_, I think sarcastically.

The water is up to my chest. I'm wading in the water, when Mercury does a cannon ball right in front of me, drenching me with water. I hit him in the arm. He feigns pain, and tackles me under the water, and flips me over. Not once does it cross my mind that we might be having too much fun. When we come up for air, Mercury is close to my ear.

"I remembered something else," he whispers. I notice Rom and Telly having a water fight. Splashing each other playfully, not even noticing us. "The Opening Ceremonies, I held your hand, and you never let go." He intertwines our fingers together. My heart flutters and I feel like kissing him, but I can't rush it too much.

"Anything else?" I ask.

"No, but you could tell me," he says, getting too close.

"Well…"

"Of course!" Someone yells from behind us.

Mercury and I fly apart. Telly and Rom stop playing. A girl is standing on the other side of the river bank. Her face is flushed with red anger. Her once blonde, curly hair is now mangled and frizzy. Her right arm is burnt.

Mercury curses, "Tiamy."

"Your ex?" I whisper.

"My crazy ex," he confirms.

"Of course you'd find another _girl_." She struts into the water while she slips a throwing knife into her hand. I start backing out of the water. "Don't move!" She throws the knife at me.

I'm barely able to take a breath before the knife grabs the edge of my shirt and I'm pinned to the bottom of the river. There's a stinging in my side and I see blood flowing to the surface. I try to pull the knife out, but it's lodged between two rocks. I struggle, trying, now, to rip my shirt to get to the surface, but the fabric is strong. I see Mercury try to help me, but Tiamy tackles him and starts trying to gut him. Rom tries to help him, and Telly disappears from the water. Mercury, Rom, and Tiamy are thrashing around in the water, and I realize, I can't breathe. My vision goes spotty, and I try to make one more escape. I see Tiamy go slack, as I start to lose feeling in my limbs. I might be seeing Mercury's face, but I lose consciousness, before I'm sure.

**. . .**

I start coughing before my eyes open. I'm at the river where we were attacked. Telly is trying to feed me something.

"Hi," I croak.

"Hi, Ez," she says, happily.

"Where are the boys?"

"Went scavenging. They're probably not too far from here."

I nod and lay down. "What happened?"

"After Tiamy got you with her knife, she tackled Mercury and Rom tried to get her off of him. They fought for a while, and then I shot her with a dart," she explained.

"Oh," I say, "nice job." I'm not sure if I should be congratulating her or not. It's her first kill, but it's her first _kill._ This game is so twisted. It shouldn't even be called a game.

She laughs half-heartedly, like she's thinking the same thing.

"Is she awake?" I hear someone ask.

I look in their direction. It's Mercury, followed by Rom.

"Yes, she is," I answer.

He gives what he has in his hands to Rom. He sits down by me.

"How are you feeling?" he asks.

"Well, my side hurts," I nonchalantly answer, pretending my side isn't burning.

"I figured," he laughs. "We tried looking for some leaves or berries that help the healing process, but we couldn't find anything."

I smile at him then make the mistake of examining the wound. It's wrapped in bandages, and blood is still soaking through.

"We keep hoping for a parachute," Rom says.

I totally forgot about sponsors. I really hope my heritage doesn't affect the sponsors.

"C'mon, Peeta," I mutter.

Mercury gives me some berries. Telly and Rom decide to go scavenging again. I'm suspicious about Rom, but I let him go. Mercury takes my head, and props it up on his knee. The sun is just starting to set. Mercury removes some of my hair from my face.

"So," he says, "Do you have something else to tell me that I might remember?"

"I feel like you'll think I'm crazy or desperate," I answer.

"I know you aren't," he smiles at me.

He starts leaning closer. Everything slows down. I close my eyes. I feel his breath on my cheek. Then I hear bells. Our eyes snap open. I look up and see a parachute falling from the sky. I smile, but I'm also sad inside: _No kisses for Esmerelda._ Mercury lets my head down, and picks up the parachute. He sits by my side, and opens it. Inside is a bowl of some kind of salve.

"Um…" Mercury begins, "Should I, or do you…?"

"Oh, yeah, I'll do it," I say.

I start to open the bandages. The cut is gruesome, there's mostly blood coming out of it, but I see some puss oozing from the edge. "Ew," I whisper. I start to put the salve on my wound. It dims the stinging feeling in my side. I rewrap my wound and wait for the Rom and Telly to come back.

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**A/N: More romantic mush, haha. Oh well, I like mush sometimes. I'm excited for the next chapter, which is pretty much what I say after every chapter. So what were you/are you going to be for Halloween/Trick-or-Treat? I was a candy passer-outer. I know I'm lame, but I was lazy this year. Anyway, review, favorite, follow, ect. :)**


	15. Chapter 15

**A/N: Hi! I'm back. So the past few months have been busy with my new role as a Speechie and homework, and the fall play, and all this crap building up, I'm just gonna stop making excuses and let you read the story, Enjoy!**

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Chapter 15

Three days pass and nothing happens. It's heavenly, but also a bit agonizing. I'm still on watch, waiting for someone to burst through the bushes and kill everyone. There's my imagination acting up again.

My wound is almost completely healed. I only limp a little when I walk. Mercury says there's probably four or five people left in the game, excluding us. I always miss the time of night when they show the dead tributes, since I insist on taking the later half of the night, and am exhausted when that time comes around.

The most relaxing and nerve-racking thing of all is Rom. He's done nothing. Nothing! I could have sworn he was gonna do something bad by now. Maybe I'm too paranoid. But Mercury told me he didn't trust him. That's something I have to consider.

Listen to me. I'm talking like a leader. That's not how I work. I feel like if I start leading people, I'll lead them in the wrong direction. And this is definitely not the place to lead people in the wrong direction, where one wrong turn could easily get you killed.

After almost a week of walking around aimlessly, we found a little cave. Just enough room for three to sleep at the mouth comfortably. We didn't want to go any further in the cave, because we thought that if we got trapped in here, it would be hard to escape.

As we set up the beds, Rom starts proposing something, "What if I took watch tonight?"

"No," I answer.

"But I've been in your alliance long enough, I feel like I've proven myself."

"Maybe I feel like you haven't," I snap.

He lets out a big sigh and goes back to preparing a bed for whoever gets to sleep without a sleeping bag. Mercury pulls me aside.

"Maybe we should trust him, just for a little bit."

"No," I reply, "you said yourself that you wouldn't trust him with your life. Why should I trust him with all three of ours?"

"I don't remember that," he said, tilting his head.

"Of course you don't," I say.

"But anyway, what if he really is trust worthy?" he asks. "We could give him only a few hours. A little bit between your shift and mine. Face it, we both need the extra hours of sleep."

I want to protest but he's right. "Fine," I mutter, "But just a few hours."

That night I sleep in between Rom and Telly. As Mercury takes his place for his shift, I stare at the cave ceiling, feeling like something is about to go wrong.

**. . .**

My eyes flutter open to the sound of something rustling. I look at Rom, but it's Mercury. I must have slept between the switch. I check on Telly. She's gone. I look around. So is Rom. And that's when I hear the scream. In two seconds, I've grabbed my sword and am rushing toward the sound. Branches hit my shoulders and face as I recklessly burst through the forest. Another cry. To my left.

Finally I burst through two branches and see Rom standing over Telly. His spear has blood at the tip.

Rage. It's all I feel as I kick Rom in the back and try to slice him in half.

"So," he sighs, picking himself up from the ground, "You heard her. Well, you can see for yourself, she's not letting out a sound for a long time."

I don't want to look, not yet. Before I know what I'm doing, I've pinned Rom against a tree trunk, my sword to his neck.

"Why'd you do it?" I growl.

"I came to win, what else is there?" he asks. "I came to show those Rebels that we're not done with them. And when I rise out of the arena victorious, I will start a new revolution."

"You idiot!" I yell. "You think that they'll let you free after this, if I don't kill you."

"You won't kill me." He laughs, "You haven't even had your first kill yet have you? No, you were there, little defenseless Esmerelda Snow. Just because your grandfather was the president doesn't mean you're the princess in distress."

"I never wanted to be the princess! I didn't want to be anything. Not victor, not ruler, not tribute."

"Then why don't you let me make you nothing?"

"Because you won't win this if it's the last thing I do."

"Then let it be," he smiles maliciously, as I barely notice him grab something from a pocket in his jacket.

Before I know it, he's hit me in the side of my face with a dagger. He escapes from my grasp. I shake my head to gain focus, and charge him. He picks up his spear and blocks my blow. We're suspended for a moment. Then I try to twist his spear out of his grasp, but he backs away before I can succeed. He twirls his spear above his head. I twist my sword upside down and try to stanb him in the chest with it. He ducks just in time, and trips me. As I fall, my sword slips out of my hand. I turn around to see the spear pointed at my head.

"You got what you wanted, you are nothing."

In a sudden rush of adrenaline, I grab the spear, and turn it around, so it faces Rom. I flip him over and land on top of him.

"No, Romulus Thread Jr., you _have_ nothing."

And I slit his throat.

I get up before any more blood gets on me. Then I see Telly. Mercury's by her side. There's blood pouring from a wound in her stomach. I rush to her side, and push Mercury out of the way.

"Telly," I say, "Telly are you okay?"

"Esmerelda?" she croaks, her eyes glued to the night sky.

"Yes, yes, it's me. I'm here. It's gonna be okay."

"No, Esmerelda, I want to say goodbye."

"No," I protest. "No, you're gonna be okay."

"Have- have you seen me?" she tries to laugh, but I can see it hurts.

"Esmerelda," she whispers, "since you can't be nothing anymore, try to be something, for... for me."

I take a deep breath, and nod.

"See you later," she says as she breathes her last.

I swallow back tears. I pick my sword and storm toward the cave. I hear Mercury follow me.

"You okay?" he asks.

I look down at my body. It's scratched up, and dirty, and starving, and thirsty, and terrible, and I just want to break down and cry. I drop my sword, and fall into his arms. I start sobbing as he strokes my hair, whispering, "It's okay. It's gonna be okay."

"But it's not." I say between sobs. "It's never gonna be okay."

* * *

**A/N: I hope that was okay, I feel like it's a bit to much like the original, but yeah, I wrote it anyway. Review!**


	16. Chapter 16

Chapter 16

A day goes by and I can't stop thinking about that. Telly's poor little eyes, so young, and she just died, right in front of me. I stayed up all night last night, keeping the sobs away. When the sun goes up, I hear Mercury sit down beside me.

"How are you doing?" he asks.

_What do you think?_ I don't answer him. I don't feel like speaking. I don't feel like doing anything. I won't win. I won't survive. I'll just be a failure.

"You can talk to me." he persists.

"Our conversation won't exactly be private." I look at the woods, hoping I'm glaring at a camera.

"It doesn't matter, this is all a drama show anyway," he replies.

"Pretty deadly drama show."

He laughs. Then I start laughing. We're both cracking up, totally delirious because it's been a week, we haven't had constant food, and we know we could die at any moment, but it doesn't matter when you're crazy.

Then there's a growl. I freeze. Mercury keeps laughing.

"Shh-" I tell him.

He snaps to attention. I stand slowly and draw my sword. Mercury's next to me drawing his bow. The growling subsides a little, but I can still hear whatever it is sniffing the air around us.

"Go around the cave, slowly," I whisper.

Mercury and I sneak around the side of the cave. It's so quiet, I can hear my heart pounding in my ears. We sneak behind a big tree trunk, but it's not big enough for both of us to stand side by side. So, I stand, my back to the tree, and Mercury stands facing me. We're trying not to be squashed together, while also trying to be as scarce as possible, causing us to be a bit pressed together.

"Check and see what's out there," I tell him.

He leans to the side, just a bit. I see him squinting. "A muttation, I think," he whispers.

Great, I'll never get a break.

"What does it look like?" I ask.

"It's dark red, shaped like a large cat, and has one big tusk on the side of its face."

"All right, tusks, woohoo!" I whisper sarcastically.

He smiles. Oh my goodness, his smile is fantastic. _Stop it!_ I think-yell at myself.

"We should climb the tree," I say.

"What if it can climb?" he asks.

"Then you'll shoot it."

I turn around, grab a branch, and pull myself up. I climb more and more, until I'm about half way up the tree. I look down and Mercury is one branch behind me. I start climbing again. Eventually, I find myself on a big branch, big enough to carry my weight. I stop and edge onto it. Mercury finds a branch for himself and hangs out there. I look down again. The mutt is prowling around under us, growling like it's rabid. It backs away, and I sigh in relief, thinking it's going away. Then it starts racing towards us. It jumps and lands on the tree trunk, making the tree quake.

"Mercury!" I scream.

He starts climbing towards me. He climbs up to a branch where he can wrap his arms around me, but I'm still a little taller than him.

"I wanted to tell you something," he says. "And now seems like the only time I can." He pauses and laughs at himself. His laugh is almost heavenly. "I remember everything."

"Everything?" I ask, suddenly excited.

He nods.

Suddenly I'm overwhelmed by a kiss. His hands around my waist, guarding me. My hands are running through his hair. "I love you," he whispers, and I start flying. No, not flying, falling.

A branch had fallen away from my feet, and now I'm falling to my death. My stomach falls up my throat as I fall down along the line of the tree trunk. I grab at branches until my palm catches one. The force feels like it rips off my arm, but when I look, it's still there. I bite my lip and grab the branch with my right arm. I lift myself up, placing my feet on the branch below me. Then I hear the growl. The mutt is right next to me.

"Esmerelda!" I hear Mercury cry.

I draw my sword, and brace my feet so they're evenly balanced. My left arm is completely numb. The muttation's big claws are pierced into the tree bark. It snarls, and lifts one of its paws. As it swings at me, I swing my sword and duck backwards. My sword nicks one of its claws off, but I almost start falling again. I quickly regain my balance as it roars. I stab at the beast and it backs up onto its back paws and, it seems, playfully swats at the metal. I step back onto another branch while the mutt steps forward. I glance upwards and Mercury is gone, hopefully he's on the ground and running. I take one more swing to the head of the beast. It roars and knocks the sword out of my hands. Then it takes its paw and slams me up against the tree. My left arm hits the wrong way, and a stream of pain flows up my arm. I cry out. The beast sniffs me, accidently brushing me with its tusk. Then it opens its mouth and roar one last time. Its breath smells like death, and there are unknown things dangling from its sharp teeth. Before it can eat me, it goes stiff. The animal whimpers and lets me loose. It falls from the branches with three arrows in the back of its neck. I look and see Mercury with putting his bow down. He comes to me and hugs me.

"Are you alright?" he asks.

"I'm okay," I let out with a shaky breath.

He kisses me on the forehead and starts helping down to the ground. Eventually we make it to the sweet ground. After retrieving my sword, I lay against the tree trunk, trying to relax, but the pain becomes too unbearable, and I can barely breathe.

"It looks like your shoulder got popped out of its socket, that's all," Mercury says as he sits down next to me. "This might hurt a little." He grabs my shoulder and pushes on it, and all I can feel is _OWWWWW_. Then I hear a crack and the pain subsides, but it's still sore.

"Come on," he says, "It's getting dark, we should find someplace to hang out for the night." He sounds so confident, like he actually knows what he's doing. I'm glad he remembers, but I only wish it could've happened sooner. He would've been a better leader than me.

He laces his fingers with mine and we walk to the cave. I can't help but think that it's dangerous for us to be like this. We sit down at the entrance, and watch the stars start to come up.

"How long do you think it's been?" Mercury asks.

"I don't know, a week maybe more, I lost count a few nights ago," I reply, laying my head on his shoulder.

"I lost count when I forgot everything," he shares.

"That was the first day," I laugh.

"Oh," he says.

I'm giggling and he starts looking into my eyes. I'm enthralled by his sweet peppermint green eyes. I stop laughing as he leans in. We start kissing. I can feel the slight brushing of his nose on mine, but it doesn't matter. Nothing matters any more. He starts lean in more, and I feel his arm on my waist. I feel the back of his head, and gently let myself fall to the ground. He follows and pulls back for a minute. "I'll never let you go," he whispers. I kiss him more, and he wraps his arms around my waist and my arms are around his neck and we start tumbling deeper into the cave than we ever have before.

* * *

**A/N: More and more mush! yay! Okay, favorite, review, and follow please!**


	17. Chapter 17

**A/N: I am really excited for you guys to read this chapter. That might be a bad thing though :)**

* * *

Chapter 17

We fell asleep near the opening of the cave. He cradled me in his arms, and the warmth of his bare chest lulled me to sleep. Before I knew it he was gently waking me.

"Esmerelda," he whispers, "It's past sun up, should we relocate?"

I stretch and roll off of his chest, "I don't know. Why don't we sleep in? I hate making decisions, anyway." I snuggle up inside my jacket that we laid on the ground.

"You're so lazy," he laughs as he turns towards me and kisses me on the forehead.

"So we're officially a thing now, right?" I ask.

"You're worried about that?"

"I am sorry," I reply, with some attitude, "I am a teenage girl who hasn't been able to act teenage lately."

He laughs again. Then he gets up and puts his shirt on. He grabs his bow and arrows, slings them over his back, and says, "I'm gonna go check outside, see if anything happened."

I nod, and watch him walk out of the cave. I wait a few seconds, sigh and realize I'm gonna have to get up anyway. So I put my jacket on, and stretch again.

"Esmerelda?" I hear him call.

"Coming," I reply.

I get up and trudge out of the cave. When I get there, I see our supplies are gone.

"Where's all our stuff?" I ask.

"I don't know, probably stolen by someone," Mercury answers.

"Well, who's left?" I ask.

"I'm not sure, I know Damien Ferrly's still alive, I haven't seen his name yet."

"And Balthazar Millea and Agatha Crane," I add.

"Maybe one more," he says, trying to deny the fact that we should probably split up now.

Then a cannon goes off.

"Or not," he says.

"So what are we gonna do about supplies?" I ask.

"We could go see who has them, and take them back, or I could go hunting."

I nod, and think of other ways to survive.

Then I hear a jingling of bells, the bells that signify a parachute. I see it floating down a short way away from the cave.

"I'll go see if that's for us," I suggest.

I walk towards the place where it landed. It's hanging on a tree branch. No one's around so I go up to it. I open the package, and I find two loaves of bread.

"Nice one, bakery boy," I whisper to Peeta, loud enough so he can possibly hear it.

But that's not all, there's a little note on the bottom. I pick it up and read it:

_ There are only 2 left, excluding you. Split up before you have to_

_ kill each other. -Peeta_

I should do it. I know I have to do it. But I absolutely don't want to do it. I want to stay with Mercury forever, but the sensible part of me reasons that that's not possible. But I can't leave him. Not after last night. I hesitate before I crumple up the paper, and leave it in the basket. "Sorry, Peeta."

I walk back to Mercury. "Look what Peeta left us," I say as I hold up the bread loaves.

"Cool," he says.

He takes the loaves and puts them in the back pack that the thief left behind.

"Since I'm up," I say, "Why don't we relocate?"

"Sure," Mercury smiles at me as he laces his fingers with mine.

We walk for a while, swinging our hands back and forth. I can't stop thinking that Mercury is perfect. I want to be with him forever. We walk until we see the edge of the lava river.

"We've gone far," he says. I nod, while he continues, "We should probably turn right."

I smile, and turn on my heel. After a few minutes, I hear a rustling.

"What was that?" I ask.

Mercury begins to draw his bow, "I'm not sure." He raises his voice, "Who's out there?" A pause. "There's no need to hide… we're probably the only ones left."

"You're right," a gruff voice replies.

"And we would know," a girl's voice adds.

They both laugh as they hop down from their hiding places among the trees. It's Agatha and Balthazar. Agatha has thick jet black hair that has been pulled back into a braid. Her muscled frame is complimented by the tank top we were forced to wear. She has a big sword clutched in her fist. Balthazar has buzz-cut, brown hair that has traces of dirt and maybe blood in it. He has no official weapons, but I have a feeling he could use those big hands to an advantage. They start circling us. Mercury and I go back to back; I keep my eyes on Agatha, while he keeps his eyes on Balthazar.

"Oh, look, it's Snow's little granddaughter," Agatha teases. "You look about as weak as he did." She makes a pouty face, like she's looking at a sick dog on the street. I'd understand why she'd have a small grudge on me, since my grandfather executed her dad.

I clench my fist, but don't answer back; I don't want to give her that satisfaction.

"Why don't you come after me, your highness? Or are you too scared?" she tries to get in my head, but I force her words out, trying not to let them get the best of me.

Then I hear a thump and a grunt behind me. I spin around and see Mercury and Balthazar wrestling on the ground. Balthazar is on top of Mercury, and Mercury's trying to push him off. Mercury sees me, and tries to call out my name, but Balthazar thrusts his hand in Mercury's face.

I turn around to see Agatha charging at me with her sword pointed forward. I lift mine and deflect her blow. The swords make and ear piercing sound and sparks fly around my face. I spin around and duck another swing. She swings again and I duck and kick her feet from underneath her. She starts to fall, but regains her balance as I spring up. Our swords clash again as I start thinking. As we battle, I begin to notice that her moves are all offensive; maybe I could use that to my advantage, if I survive that long. She runs forward, and practically knocks my sword out of my hand. She keeps advancing and backs me into a tree. She tries to put her sword at my throat, but I grab onto the hilt and push as hard as I can. She tries to push me off guard with her free hand. I hold her hand away from my face. We're suspended for a moment, and I can smell her breath, and I think, _this is why we need tooth brushes._ Suddenly she decides to force herself away from me, letting me let go. She swings her sword at me as I duck and roll toward my own sword. I pick it up and run until I run into Balthazar. He turns around menacingly and my hands involuntarily start to tremble. He swings his fist at me, and I duck and crawl to a different spot. Mercury distracts Balthazar from coming at me again. Agatha pops out of nowhere. She stabs near my face and I bend backwards just in time. I take a swing at her and she blocks my blow. She kicks my stomach backwards. I look up to see her preparing to charge. She stabs forward, and I turn so my back is to her. I thrust my arms forward and spin my sword so it's pointing to her. I kick backward, and kind of feel like a ballerina, as my foot come into contact with her stomach. My back is still to her as she stumbles backward. I turn my head ever so slightly so I can see her. She gets up and starts charging at me. Her sword is aimed at my head. I wait until the last second, brace my sword at the side of my stomach pointing backwards, and when she arrives I swing my head to the side and let my sword go through her stomach. She stumbles backward, and I turn around. She's holding her stomach, and sputters out, "D-dad." She looks relieved and falls to the ground, dead.

I have no time to feel guilt as I turn to see Mercury and Balthazar wrestling extremely close to the volcanic river. Not wanting to feel helpless, I charge at Balthazar and land on his back, trying to knock him over. He grunts a little bit. I barely made a dent. So I muster up all the strength I can get, wrap my arms around his neck and pull backwards. I somehow manage to pull him backwards, off of Mercury. Mercury snakes out from under Balthazar and runs to his bow. Balthazar finally takes notice of me, grabs me, and pins me down so my head is just hovering over the lava.

"Mercury!" I cry.

Balthazar holds one of my arms down, and braces his other arms against my neck. I can feel the heat of the lava on the back of my head.

"Better hurry up hero!" Balthazar calls. "Your little girlfriend doesn't have long."

I struggle as much as I can, I try to push him off me, but it's no use. He's too strong for me. I feel like a cliché. And I want to punch this guy so hard.

"Looks like your hero's not coming," Balthazar growls.

I take a shaky breath and whimper, "Mercury."

Then Balthazar starts to push me off the edge. He grabs my neck and shoves my upper body over the river, my legs still on solid ground. I try to scream, but Balthazar is cutting off my voice. He pulls me upward, and hangs me over the lava. I'm still trying to scream, hoping I might let some noise out, to be heard. Then I see him. He has his bow drawn and is staring at me.

"Esmerelda!" he cries.

Balthazar's head snaps toward Mercury's direction. He aims his bow at Balthazar's head.

"You shoot me, and I'll drop her," he yells.

I want to struggle against his grip, but getting myself free means dying. So I let out a barely audible whimper. Mercury lowers his bow and steps forward slowly. Balthazar threatens to drop me in again. Mercury stops abruptly and put his hands up.

"Just let her go," he says.

"I'll let her go," Balthazar snarls, "I'll drop her into the lava, so you can watch her burn, and sink into nothing."

_Nothing, _I can't be nothing.

I start to look around, for somthing that might be of use. I notice a branch just above my head. _That is just_ too _convenient, _I think. I grab it and hope Balthazar doesn't notice my sudden shift. He keeps staring at Mercury, who's staring at me. I see the faintest trace of a smile disappear, as he realizes I'm trying to be inconspicuous. I grab the branch with my other hand.

"Why don't you drop her?" Mercury asks.

"What?" Balthazar is puzzled still holding onto my neck.

"Drop her."

"O- Okay," Balthazar releases his grip on my neck. After not hearing anything, he looks at me, and starts to say, "You son of a-"

I kick him in the head. He stumbles backward. Mercury rushes forward. I pull myself up a little, as Mercury rams into Balthazar. Mercury stops and Balthazar keeps rushing forward, unable to stop momentum. He trips into the lava. I'm holding myself up as I hear him scream in pain. I shut my eyes, and wait for it to be over. When I hear a soft _thunk_. I look down and see an arrow sticking out of something that used to resemble Balthazar. He sinks into the lava.

I struggle to keep hold of the branch, and I hear a loud crack sound.

"Mercury!" I cry.

He looks at me and starts running at me as soon as the branch breaks. I'm falling, and I feel the air getting hotter as I fall towards the lava. All of a sudden, I'm hit by something and I'm jerked sideways. I tumble onto the rocks entangled with something. As the tumbling stops, I open my eyes to see Mercury on top of me.

"Mercury," I whisper, "you saved me."

"What do you think I'd do?" he asks. He kisses me and I'm so, so happy. Until I remember.

"Wait," I say, getting up. "They were the only two left besides us."

"What?" Mercury sounds surprised.

"We're the only ones left."

"No," he barely whispers.

"We could just wait it out," _It_ being death.

"What's the use?" he asks. "We'd just loose each other." He steps toward me and grabs a knife from my belt. He puts it in my hand, "Kill me."

"No. Never. I wouldn't-"

He adjusts my hand so it's pointed at his stomach, "One of us has to die."

I turn the knife around, so it's pointing to me, "Kill me then."

"You are too precious to me and the world for me to kill you," as he says that, he places his hand on my stomach.

I kiss him. I take my hands off the knife and run them through his hair. I drink in every moment of this. He leans into my ear, and whispers, "Goodbye."

Then I realize my mistake. I took my hands off the knife.

Mercury goes slack in my arms. A bloody knife falls from his hand. I gasp and try to hold him up. Try to undo the past few seconds, but he falls to the ground. I cradle his head in my arms. I want life to come back into the beautiful, cold, pale cheeks. But it's never going to happen. I sob as a hovercraft appears above me. But I won't let go of him I won't. Before I know it, someone is tearing me away from the body that used to be Mercury. I'm screaming and crying and kicking and thrashing around until everything is dark.

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**A/N: And the games are over! One or two more chapters to come. And please feel free to review.**


	18. Chapter 18

**A/N: My goodness guys, here comes a wammie right here. My goodness... dont hate me! (anymore than you already do ;))**

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Chapter 18

Two weeks. Fourteen days without him. Three hundred twenty-seven hours since I saw him last. I've been in a hospital. I'm still here because I have no home. They tell me I can leave, go anywhere I like, but they want to interview me. But I don't know when, and I don't know if I want to. I've been haunted by his dying face enough. I can't relive those moments. And there's a secret I might have to tell if I do the interview. I pace around my room for another hour, trying to think of something else. I fail. I suddenly feel sick, whether it's the smell of lunch cooking or the thought of all the blood, and run to the toilet. I lose my breakfast and gasp for air. When I get up to clean myself, I accidently glance at the mirror. My blonde hair has grown in at the roots of my dyed head. Although I brushed it last night, my hair is an untamed mess. My eyes are starting to get bags underneath them; they're rimmed with red. I'm wearing the standard medical dress thing over a simple tee-shirt and some sweat pants. I look sad. Sick. I quickly turn away. I walk out in my main room to find my prep team waiting for me. They all smile at me.

"Congratulations!" Merimee sings.

It's followed by many more cheers from my prep team. I smile in the slightest. I don't feel like I should be congratulated. I feel like crap and I want to die, but I know I can't.

"Your interview's today!" Rhoda cheers.

They take me to a car outside and we drive to the studio where the interviews take place, since the Remake Center is being destroyed. They take me to a room lined with mirrors and something that looks like a dentist chair. They tell me to sit in that chair. I obey. And soon my eyebrows are as pin pointed as they were when I began this whole experience. They begin applying make-up. Light green eye shadow with grey eyeliner hides my sad eyes. Light pink lipstick with dashes of light green tints makes my poker face look almost joyful. And it feels like pounds of cover up disguises my tiredness. Next comes the hair. They ask me if I want my hair to grow out in its natural colors. I don't really care, but I feel like my old hair dye is too young for me. They decide to temporarily dye my roots black and white. Then they cut my hair to get rid of the split ends. My hair is styled into two braids that form a crown around my head, leaving the white part of my hair down. Green circular jewels are sprinkled in my braids. They make me get up and fit me in my dress. It has a sweet heart neck-line, edged with white lace. There's some sort of belt made of lace leading to the skirt of my dress which is like a ballerina's skirt. My heels are light green ribbons laced up to the middle of my shin.

When they finish, they lead me to the room where my interview will be taking place. I sit in the chair and wait for Caesar to arrive.

Tigris walks in to make sure I look good. She makes me stand, and turn around, sit down and position the dress to make it look "camera-worthy."

Then she surprises me, "Look, Esmerelda, I know you miss him, but I need to you to smile."

I lift the edge of my mouth a little.

She practically hisses at me, "I need you to smile like you mean it."

I try to do something with my lips, but it probably looks like I'm baring my teeth.

"Imagine you're talking to him, when you talk to Caesar," she suggests.

"I can't."

"Yes, you can."

"I'll just start crying," I whine.

"Don't you dare," she says. "Do you know how long it took me to pick the perfect shade, and show those fools how to place it perfectly on your eyelid? If you cry, you will ruin a master piece."

"Selfish much?" I'm not in a good mood.

"Esmerelda? Would he want you to smile?"

I pause. I think of his sweet smile, his wonderful eyes, and his soft lips. I almost smile.

"How about instead of smiling at him, imagine you're giving him one last smile. One last notion of love."

I think about this for what seems like forever. Then Caesar sits next to me.

"Are you ready for this Esmerelda?" he flashes me his brilliant TV smile.

I nod slightly.

"Remember to smile," Tigris hisses as she struts away.

Caesar fixes his suit, and I just feel inclined to smoothen out my dress. The camera moves to shoot both of us. Caesar tests out his smile on the camera, and the camera man gives him a thumbs-up. Then the director starts a countdown.

"Three… Two…" Then he mouths the number One, and points to Caesar.

"Welcome, ladies and gentlemen, to what will make the end of the Hunger Games forever. I'm here with Esmerelda Snow, the victor of the last Hunger Games." All of a sudden he turns to me, "So, Esmerelda, congratulations."

I smile a little, "Thanks."

"How does it feel to be the last victor to ever walk the earth?"

"Not how I thought it would," I answer.

"Hmm…" is all he says in reply. "Let's watch some highlights and talk about those."

Oh no, I don't want to watch it. Not one minute of it. A screen comes to life above the camera. A view of the cornucopia appears. The tributes rise from the ground and I see me in the middle of it. I see the girl fall on the mines and Hunger Games start and everyone running. The video cuts to when I find Mercury.

"So, how scared were you?" Caesar asks in a humorous fashion. Although, nothing about this thing is humorous.

"I was terrified," I try to laugh, to feed off of his positive energy, but I'm too numb. "He couldn't remember a thing." He was lucky. I wish I couldn't remember.

"You looked extremely disappointed when you found out he couldn't remember, why?"

"Oh," I start to stutter, "Y-you know, he wouldn't remember me, his partner, and what if he went totally feral, and attacked us?"

We go over many moments like this, meeting Rom, fighting Tiamy at the river, Telly's death, the mutt, and the cave.

Then, Caesar goes onto the next clip.

Mercury's death.

Before it starts playing, I say, "Look, I-I don't know if I can-"

"It's alright, sweetheart," Caesar says. "You can do it, for the audience."

But I don't want to watch this video for the audience. I want to go far, far away from anything that can hurt me again.

He continues to play the clip.

I see Balthazar holding me over the river. I grabbed onto the branch, he let go, and before I knew it, Balthazar was in the lava. Then I see myself realize that we were the last two. Tears form in my eyes as we kiss, and I look away before the knife enters his stomach. The clip ends and there's a strange silence for fifteen seconds. I feel Caesar's arm go around me.

"Are you alright?" he asks.

I nod and pretend I wasn't crying, although my makeup is probably smudged. I smooth out my dress for no particular reason, and clear my throat.

"How was it?" he breaks the silence. "Losing him, I mean."

I think a lot before answering. "It was the worst possible feeling anyone could have ever felt. I would rather be left to the lava with Balthazar."

He looks surprised at my answer. "Do you miss him?"

"A lot. Although he left something behind for me."

"And what is that?"

"I- I'm afraid that's private."

"Okay," he puts his hand on my knee. "That's all for tonight. Thank you, Esmerelda, for being with us tonight."

"You're welcome," I reply softly.

"Good night everyone." He waves at the camera.

The director yells, "That's a wrap!"

I'm rushed away. When I get back to the hospital, I'm told, I have to pack up as much as I can and pick a place to move. I change out of my interview clothes, wash away my make up, and change into something comfortable. I catch myself in the mirror again. This time I don't look at my face. I look at the small bump growing in my stomach. Mercury did leave something behind… I'm pregnant.


	19. Epilogue

**A/N: I hoped you liked that last chapter. Now, this is the last addition I will be making to this. (maybe) If you like to listen to music that goes along with what your reading/have read, go look up 'Hymn for the Missing' by RED. It reminded me of this part.**

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Epilogue

I had heard that the beaches of District Four are wonderful. I always wanted to live there. So, when I was told I could live anywhere I chose, there was no other option. The beach next my - our - house is my favorite place to stand and think. I do that a lot lately, ever since she's been old enough to play outside. My daughter, Isabella, is the most beautiful human being I have ever seen. … One of them at least. She has my blonde hair, but his eyes. They glow with the same green as his. Every time I look in them it's bittersweet.

"She started talking today," I whisper. Being on the beach makes me feel like I have some sort of connection with… something more. "She said 'mama.' Well, it was more like mehmeh, but it still counts. …I wish you were here. It'd be so much easier, and-"

I look back at my child. She's making a sandcastle/lump with one of the fishermen. Most of the fishermen here are nice, so I don't worry too much, but just in case, I step a bit closer to her. She smiles her brightest when she's with others. She loves to socialize.

We made a friend of a nice lady and her son next door. We continue to joke that our children are going to get together one day. Her child lost his father too. She said he was fighting in the war that took the Capitol. I wonder if I ever saw him.

"What's her name?" the fisherman asks.

"Isabella," I reply.

I quickly examine him. He wears a white shirt and khaki pants, rolled up to his ankles, his shaggy brown hair is catching sand as my child throws it around. I look away. He's too familiar, too much like him.

I lost the name Snow as soon as I moved. I became Ms. Famine. Changing my name like we would've together, if we had both survived. But two years have passed since then, and I have other things I should have on my mind now.

"She looks like you," he says.

"Thank you," I reply, maybe a bit too coldly.

I look out to sea, there are a few fishing boats floating in the horizon. And bird flying through clouds. Storm clouds. I go to my daughter.

"Shouldn't you be getting home?" I ask. "It looks like a storm's coming."

"Home," he sighs. "Home is hard place to get to."

"So, you're homeless?" I talk without thinking. "Sorry, I didn't mean to pry."

"No don't worry about it." He looks out toward the ocean. His eyes are squinted, so I can't see their color. I focus on my daughter, picking her up as he says, "I could find home… if you would open your heart."

"What?" I turn around to face him, but he's gone.

I back toward my house, convincing myself, I was just imagining things. But part of me can't seem to stop wondering who he was.

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**A/N: Thank you so much guys, for going along with this wonderful, depressing, and yet fun journey with me. (It was fun for me at least... hehe) I will now continue The Son of Justice, and The Daughter of Flames, if you're following that. If you're not, and you like Percy Jackson, go read it! Big shout out to ironsharpensiron27. She's one of my bestest freinds and a great writer herself. She's getting her book 'Glitch' published, and you can read the first few chapters here! if you want. Again thanks for coming along this journey with Esmerelda and I. I love you all!**


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